NCJ Number
181116
Journal
Policy and Practice Issue: Complete Issue Dated: 1998
Editor(s)
Brenner Brown
Date Published
1998
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Since 1994, there has been a surge of activity in State legislatures and the U.S. Congress with regard to sex offender registration and notification, and many States are taking advantage of emerging technologies to create sex offender registration and community notification systems.
Abstract
States have become innovative in their use of such technologies as 800 and 900 telephone numbers, World Wide Web sites on the Internet, and CD-ROMs to provide information to the public about the presence of convicted sex offenders in their communities. States have chosen to integrate these technologies into their community notification systems primarily because they create opportunities to reach more people while using fewer resources and they provide faster responses to public inquiries. Practitioners in the field cite advantages and disadvantages associated with using each of these technologies. The use of 800 and 900 telephone numbers in New York and California and implementation experiences with searchable web sites in several States are described, as well as the use of CD-ROMs to provide access to sex offender registry information. 18 references and 1 table